


Mountains in the Sky

by Vorcha_Girl



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst and Feels, F/M, Love, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 11:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13879539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vorcha_Girl/pseuds/Vorcha_Girl
Summary: After crash landing on Habitat 7, Harry Carlyle can't stop thinking about what might have become of the woman he loves: Sara Ryder.





	Mountains in the Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amarmeme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amarmeme/gifts).



> This is for my wonderful friend Amarmeme! I was going to write you some super sexy Harry x Sara smut, but I got this idea stuck in my head and wanted to explore it. I hope you enjoy it! ^_^ Thank you for always supporting me and being a wonderful friend!

Awareness came back to Harry in static blasts. Like tuning a television in to a station that wasn't quite in range. He got images but no sound. Pieces of sound but no images. Snatches of sensation, of memory, of pain, of heat, of scent, and then … _nothing_.

He sank into the nothing, feeling every bit his forty-five years as he tried to make sense of the strange dream he'd had of floating mountains and falling people. Of lightning that had, impossibly, rendered their shuttle useless and sent them crashing from the sky like falling angels.

Of Alec Ryder’s pale face when the other shuttle had called through because they’d lost Sara.

_They’d lost Sara._

_Sara_.

Sara who had come into his life so recently with a blaze of colour, life, and passion. Who made him feel alive. Who, for all his flaws, seemed to love him as much as he loved her.

Voices buzzed around him in the nothingness like flies, pulling him from that soupy blackness, and Harry lurched back to reality with the sickening realisation that Sara was gone. That their shuttles were down. That she’d been sucked from a hole in her shuttle while thousands of metres above ground.

_God, no._

Not his Sara.

The vision of her falling past those impossible floating mountains, screaming, hands reaching out for him to save her flashed through his mind and Harry sat up with a strangled yell, half-sick, half-struggling to breath as he tried to get to his feet, wanting to find her, desperate for news.

“Sara!”

Hands pushed him down again before he could find his feet. Steadied him. A familiar voice told him to rest. And he found himself staring up into Alec’s face, grim and drawn.

For a moment, the sight of his friend calmed him. Slowed his thundering heart. But the fear began to bubble away again as he saw the wreckage around him, the twisted wreck of the shuttle, the scattered remains of their cargo, and the flames that were somehow managing to burn in whatever thin atmosphere there was.

“Harry? You with me?” Alec, all business, had hold of his shoulders and helped him sit up again now that he was calm.

 _Or appeared calm,_ Harry amended.

He didn’t feel calm at all; he wanted to scream.

“I’m here,” he confirmed and brushed Alec’s hands aside. “The other shuttle?”

Maybe it was his imagination, but he thought for a moment Alec froze, that his eyes narrowed at him ever so slightly. “No word since they went down.”

“Sara?” he asked, unable to stop himself.

This time there was no mistaking the tightening around his friend’s eyes, and he shook his head. “Nothing. But she’s strong. If anyone can make it down, she could.” He stared into Harry’s eyes for a long time, meeting his gaze squarely and not flinching. “Harry, you woke up saying Sara’s name. You and my daughter, is there -“

“Alec,” Harry looked away, swallowing as he tried to escape the unshakeable feeling that he had betrayed his oldest friend. “ _Don’t_.”

Alec took a deep breath and nodded, but in that moment, he could see that he _knew_. He knew everything and chose to say nothing. His friend stood up, his N7 armour glittering in the light of the flames as he extended a hand which Harry took, and allowed Alec to pull him up.

The hand that took his was like iron, the grip tight, and for a moment he wondered if the man who was his best friend was going to hit him, to smash his helmet and kill him for getting involved with his daughter. But the moment passed, and the next moment Alec chuckled wryly, maybe bitterly, and turned to survey the wreckage.

“I’m going to scout ahead while Cora and Hayes focus on fixing the shuttle.” He glanced at him sideways, the plexiglass of his helmet hiding his expression. “I’ll keep an eye out for my daughter.”

Harry started, the thought of leaving the crash, of venturing out onto this alien world to search for Sara causing his heart to leap. He glanced around, at the weird sky with its floating mountains and crackling lightning, at the strange alien flora with its curling tendril-like leaves, and thought of Sara being alone out there.

“Please find her.”

Alec grunted his acknowledgment. “My first priority is to find out what the hell took down our shuttles, and find out what happened to this planet.” He sighed. “But I’ll find her if I can. She is my _daughter_ after all.”

It was the second time he’d pointed out that Sara was his daughter, and Harry took the hint, though it didn’t change the way he felt. Which made him feel worse in many ways. Because he _should_ have felt bad about sleeping with his best friend’s daughter.

But he loved her.

He didn’t want to think too hard about what Alec would have to say to the both of them when this mission was over, because knowing him he’d have plenty. Instead he focused on the last time he’d seen Sara. Of her twinkling blue eyes as she’d teased him about coming along on the mission, and the appreciative glow in them as she’d watched him hoist that crate and carry it to the shuttle. He’d almost given himself a hernia doing it, but he’d enjoyed having her watch him.

He sighed as Alec stepped away without saying another word and geared up, grabbing a gun, ammo, and speaking to Cora. He left without saying another word, leaving Harry staring after him. Every bone in his body yearned to go with Alec, though he knew it was useless. Alec was an N7 and a Pathfinder, while he was just a doctor who was definitely feeling his age.

But somehow, in his heart of hearts, he knew he’d see Sara again: if mountains could float in the sky, then Sara could make it out of here alive.


End file.
